If you buy meat at the grocery store, you’ve probably noticed over the last year and a half that prices keep going up and at a pretty good clip.
“That’s not going to slow within 2021,” says economist Carolyn Chelius. She tracks prices for the US Department of Agriculture. She says compared to this time one year ago, we’re paying 12% more for beef, over 6% more for poultry, and almost 10% more for pork.
What’s contributing to the higher prices? Chelius says first, the cost of feed for livestock is up 20%-30%. Plus, “transportation prices have been high, demand is still extremely high, both domestic and international, for products like meat, and then supply has been lower to stable.”
Chelius is forecasting price hikes for meat next year as well.
